SECOND TOPIC: PIAGETS STAGES OF COGNITIVE
Definition:
DEVELOPMENT
I. JEAN PIAGET: JUST WHO IS HE?
A. Short description or information about Jean Piaget
1. Jean Piaget was a Swiss clinical psychologist
known for his pioneering work in child
development. Piaget's theory of cognitive
development and epistemological view are
together called "genetic epistemology"
B. Introducing him by telling why and how he
discovered his theory
1. Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to
make a systematic study of cognitive
development. His contributions include a
theory of child cognitive development,
detailed observational studies of cognition in
children, and a series of simple but ingenious
tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.
II. PIAGETS STAGES OF COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT: DEFINITION
A. Short description or information about his theory
1. According to psychologist Jean Piaget,
children progress through a series of four
critical stages of cognitive development. Each
stage is marked by shifts in how
kids understand the world. Piaget believed
that children are like "little scientists" and that
they actively try to explore and make sense of
the world around them.
2. Through his observations of his children,
Piaget developed a stage theory of intellectual
development that included four distinct stages:
III. STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
A. SENSORIMOTO STAGE (Birth 2 years)
1. Definition:
1.1. The main achievement during this stage
is object permanence - knowing that an
object still exists, even if it is hidden.
1.2. It requires the ability to form a mental
representation (i.e. a schema) of the
object.
B. PREOPERATIONAL STAGE (2 7 years)
1. Definition:
1.1. During this stage, young children are able
to think about things symbolically. This is
the ability to make one thing - a word or
an object - stand for something other than
itself.
1.2. Thinking is still egocentric, and the infant
has difficulty taking the viewpoint of
others.
C. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE (7 11
years)
1.
1.1.Piaget considered the concrete stage a
major turning point in the child's
cognitive development, because it marks
the beginning of logical or operational
thought.
1.2.This means the child can work things out
internally in their head (rather than
physically try things out in the real
world).
1.3.Children can conserve number (age 6),
mass (age 7), and weight (age 9).
Conservation is the understanding that
something stays the same in quantity even
though its appearance changes
D. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE (11 years
and over)
1. Definition:
1.1. The formal operational stage begins at
approximately age eleven and lasts into
adulthood. During this time, people
develop the ability to think about
abstract concepts, and logically test
hypotheses.
IV. FIRST STAGE: SENSORIMOTOR
A. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
This is the earliest in Piaget's theory of
cognitive development. He described this period as a time of
tremendous growth and change.
During this initial phase of development,
children experience the world and gain knowledge through their
senses and motor movements. As children interact with their
environments, they go through an astonishing amount of
cognitive growth in a relatively short period of time.
The first stage of Piaget's theory lasts from
birth to approximately age two and is centered on the infant
trying to make sense of the world.
During the sensorimotor stage, an infant's
knowledge of the world is limited to his or her sensory
perceptions and motor activities. Behaviors are limited to simple
motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.
Children utilize skills and abilities they were
born with (such as looking, sucking, grasping, and listening) to
learn more about the environment.
B. OBJECT PERMANENCE
 According to Piaget, developing object
permanence is one of the most important accomplishments at
the sensorimotor stage of development. Object permanence is a
child's understanding that objects continue to exist even though
they cannot be seen or heard.
Imagine a game of peek-a-boo, for example.
A very young infant will believe that the other
person or object has actually vanished and will act shocked or
startled when the object reappears. Older infants who
understand object permanence will realize that the person or
object continues to exist even when unseen.
C. SUBSTAGES OF THE SENSORIMOTOR STAGE
The sensorimotor stage can be divided into six
separate sub-stages that are characterized by the development of
a new skill.
1. Reflexes (0-1 month):
During this substage, the child understands the
environment purely through inborn reflexes such as sucking and
looking.
2. Primary Circular Reactions (1-4 months):
This substage involves coordinating sensation and
new schemas. For example, a child may suck his or her thumb
by accident and then later intentionally repeat the action. These
actions are repeated because the infant finds them pleasurable.
3. Secondary Circular Reactions (4-8 months):
During this substage, the child becomes more focused
on the world and begins to intentionally repeat an action in order
to trigger a response in the environment.
For example, a child will purposefully pick up a toy in
order to put it in his or her mouth.
4. Coordination of Reactions (8-12 months):
During this substage, the child starts to show clearly
intentional actions. The child may also combine schemas in
order to achieve a desired effect. Children begin exploring the
environment around them and will often imitate the observed
behavior of others. The understanding of objects also begins
during this time and children begin to recognize certain objects
as having specific qualities. For example, a child might realize
that a rattle will make a sound when shaken.
5. Tertiary Circular Reactions (12-18 months):
Children begin a period of trial-and-error
experimentation during the fifth substage. For example, a child
may try out different sounds or actions as a way of getting
attention from a caregiver.
6. Early Representational Thought (18-24 months):
Children begin to develop symbols to represent events
or objects in the world in the final sensorimotor substage.
During this time, children begin to move towards understanding
the world through mental operations rather than purely through
actions.
V. SECOND STAGE: PREOPERATIONAL
The preoperational stage is the second stage in
Piaget's theory of cognitive development. This stage begins
around age two as children start to talks and last until
approximately age seven. During this stage, children begin to
engage in symbolic play and learn to manipulate symbols.
However, Piaget noted that they do not yet understand concrete
logic.
A. Characteristics of the Preoperational Stage
The preoperational stage occurs roughly between the
ages two and seven. Language development is one of the
hallmarks of this period. Piaget noted that children in this stage
do not yet understand concrete logic, cannot mentally
manipulate information, and are unable to take the point of view
of other people, which he termed egocentrism.
During the preoperational stage, children also become
increasingly adept at using symbols, as evidenced by the
increase in playing and pretending. For example, a child is able
to use an object to represent something else, such as pretending
a broom is a horse. Role playing also becomes important during
the preoperational stage. Children often play the roles of
"mommy", "daddy", "doctor", and many other characters.
B. Egocentrism
Piaget used a number of creative and clever techniques
to study the mental abilities of children.
One of the famous techniques to
demonstrate egocentrism involved using a three-dimensional
display of a mountain scene. Often referred to as the "Three
Mountain Task," children are asked to choose a picture that
showed the scene they had observed.
Most children are able to do this with little difficulty.
Next, children are asked to select a picture showing
what someone else would have observed when looking at the
mountain from a different viewpoint.
Invariably, children almost always choose the scene
showing their own view of the mountain scene. According to
Piaget, children experience this difficulty because they are
unable to take on another person's perspective.
C. Conservation
 Another well-known experiment involves
demonstrating a child's understanding of conservation. In one
conservation experiment, equal amounts of liquid are poured
into two identical containers. The liquid in one container is then
poured into a different shaped cup, such as a tall and thin cup or
a short and wide cup. Children are then asked which cup holds
the most liquid. Despite seeing that the liquid amounts were
equal, children almost always choose the cup that appears fuller.
Piaget conducted a number of similar experiments on
the conservation of number, length, mass, weight, volume, and
quantity. He found that few children showed any understanding
of conservation prior to the age of five.
D. Piaget's Thoughts on the Preoperational Stage
As you might have noticed, much of Piaget's focus at
this stage of development focused on what children could not
yet do. The concepts of egocentrism and conservation are both
centered on abilities that children have not yet developed; they
lack the understanding that things look different to other people
and that objects can change in appearance while still
maintaining the same properties.
However, not everyone agrees with Piaget's assessment
of children's abilities. Researcher Martin Hughes, for example,
argued that the reason that children failed at the three mountains
task was simply because they did not understand it. In an
experiment that involved utilizing dolls, Hughes demonstrated
that children as young as age four were able to understand
situations from multiple points of view, suggesting that children
become less egocentric at an earlier age than Piaget believed.
VI. THIRD STAGE: CONCRETE
OPERATIONAL
The concrete operational stage is the third in Piaget's
theory of cognitive development. This period spans the time of
middle childhood and is characterized by the development of
logical thought. While kids at this age become more logical
about concrete and specific things, they still struggle with
abstract ideas.
A. Characteristics of the Concrete Operational Stage
The concrete operational stage begins around age seven
and continues until approximately age eleven. During this time,
children gain a better understanding of mental operations.
Children begin thinking logically about concrete events, but
have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.
B. Logic
Piaget determined that children in the concrete
operational stage were fairly good at the use of inductive logic
(inductive reasoning). Inductive logic involves going from a
specific experience to a general principle. An example of
inductive logic would be noticing that every time you are
around a cat, you have itchy eyes, a runny nose, and a swollen
throat. You might then reason from that experience that you are
allergic to cats.
On the other hand, children at this age have difficulty
using deductive logic, which involves using a general principle
to determine the outcome of a specific event.
For example, a child might learn that A=B, and B=C,
but might still struggle to understand that A=C.
C. Reversibility
One of the most important developments in this stage is
an understanding of reversibility, or awareness that actions can
be reversed. An example of this is being able to reverse the
order of relationships between mental categories.
For example, a child might be able to recognize that his
or her dog is a Labrador, that a Labrador is a dog, and that a dog
is an animal.
D. Other Key Characteristics
Another key development at this stage is the
understanding that when something changes in shape or
appearance it is still the same, a concept known as conservation.
Kids at this stage understand that if you break a candy bar up
into smaller pieces it is still the same amount at when the candy
was whole.
The concrete operational stage is also marked by
egocentrism disappearance. While children in the preceding
stage of development (the preoperational stage) struggle to take
the perspective of others, kids in the concrete stage are able to
think about things the way that others see them. In Piaget's
Three-Mountain Task, for example, children in the concrete
operational stage can describe how a mountain scene would
look to an observer seated opposite them.
VII. LAST STAGE: FORMAL OPERATIONAL
The formal operational stage is the fourth and final
stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. The emerging
abstract thought and hypothetical reasoning mark this phase of
development.
At this point in development, thinking becomes much
more sophisticated and advanced. Kids can think about abstract
and theoretical concepts and use logic to come up with creative
solutions to problems.
A. Characteristics of the Formal Operational Stage
The formal operational stage begins at
approximately age twelve and lasts into
adulthood.
During this time, people develop the ability to
think about abstract concepts.
 Skills such as logical thought, deductive
reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge
during this stage.
B. How Did Piaget Test Formal Operations?
Piaget tested formal operational thought in a few
different ways:
One task involved having children of different ages
balance a scale by hooking weights on the each end. To balance
the scale, the children needed to understand that both the
heaviness of the weights and distancing from the center played a
role.
of actions. This type of thinking is important in long-term
planning.
E. Problem-Solving
In earlier stages, children used trial-and-error to solve
problems. During the formal operational stage, the ability
to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical
way emerges. Children at the formal operational stage of
cognitive development are often able to plan quickly an
organized approach to solving a problem.
F. Other Characteristics of the Formal Operational
Stage

Younger children around the ages of 3 and 5 were
unable to complete the task because they did not understand the
concept of balance. Seven-year-olds knew that they could adjust
the scale by placing weights on each end, but failed to
understand that where they put the weights was also important.
By age 10, the kids considered location as well as
weight but had to arrive at the correct answer using trial-and-
error. It wasn't until around age 13 that children could use logic
to form a hypothesis about where to place the weights to balance
the scale and then complete the task.
In another experiment on formal operational thought,
Piaget asked children to imagine where they would want to
place a third eye if they had one.
Piaget believed that what he referred to as
"hypothetico-deductive reasoning" was essential at this stage of
intellectual development. At this point, teens become capable of
thinking about abstract and hypothetical ideas. They often
ponder "what-if" type situations and questions and can think
about multiple solutions or possible outcomes.
While kids in the previous stage (concrete operations)
are very particular in their thoughts, kids in the formal
operational stage become increasingly abstract in their thinking.
They also develop what is known as metacognition, or the
ability to think about their thoughts as well as the ideas of
others.

Younger children said that they would put the imagined

third eye in the middle of their forehead. Older children,
however, were able to come up with a variety of creative ideas
about where to place this hypothetical eye and various ways the
eye could be used. An eye in the middle of one's hand would by
useful for looking around corners. An eye at the back of one's
head could be helpful for seeing what is happening in the
background. Such creative ideas represent the use of abstract
and hypothetical thinking, both important indicators of formal
operational thought.

C. Logic

Piaget believed that deductive reasoning became

necessary during the formal operational stage. Deductive logic
requires the ability to use a general principle to determine a
particular outcome. Science and mathematics often require this
type of thinking about hypothetical situations and concepts.

D. Abstract Thought

While children tend to think very concretely and

specifically in earlier stages, the ability to think about abstract
concepts emerges during the formal operational stage.

Instead of relying solely on previous experiences,

children begin to consider possible outcomes and consequences